*UPDATE* Turns out, Black Lightning is NOT part of CW's Arrowverse. Oops! CW President Mark Pedowitz relayed to EW...
“We do not aim to do a five-way crossover. Black Lightning, at this time, is not part of the Arrowverse. It is a separate situation. But there will be a big fourth quarter crossover with all four of the shows that are on in the fall.”
He does say "at this time", so maybe at some point it does join the rest of the shows in the same universe, just as Supergirl eventually did. The original story is below.
Normally I'd say there are far too many Arrowverse shows over on The CW, but when the latest one is Black Lightning I shut the Hell up. The Justice Leaguer gets his own series and joins the likes of Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and his first trailer comes out, appropriately enough, ready to shock the world.
This does not look like just another superhero show. Cress Williams stars as Jefferson Pierce, a black man and father of two daughters who returns home to New Orleans where he leads a double life. On the one side he's the principal of a high school, on the other he's the costumed hero Black Lightning. But it's a role he's taken on before, and much of this trailer shows him wrestling with the decision to come out of retirement. From the setting to the emphasis on a black family to Pierce's grappling with his choice to fight crime, this already looks like a much-needed dose of diversity.
The CW will debut Black Lightning midseason.
